Jesus Revealed The Father's Light

What Did Jesus Do?

“I have come into the world as light,
so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”
John 12.46

Some people find fault with many of today's Christian songwriters, saying that their enthusiasm sometimes gets the better of them, resulting in some faulty teaching. But, even hymn writers of old could sometimes be victimized by their own enthusiasms. Take “Immortal, Invisible,” written by Walter Chalmers Smith. I love this hymn, but nevertheless take exception to some of its teaching.

For example, consider this line from the first stanza: “In light inaccessible hid from our eyes.” Smith, so taken by the majesty and power of God the Father, was moved to describe him as beyond our the capacity of our senses to bear. Considering how dependent human being are on their physical senses, a god essentially imperceptible to the human eye or ear would truly be all but inaccessible. The truth is, this simply isn't so. In fact, the Father went to great lengths to reveal himself, and his majesty and his glory, to us. He did it through his Son, Jesus, who revealed the Father's light to the world.

Think about it. Jesus was not on any kind of mission of self-aggrandizement. On the contrary, his aim was to make the Father known, and to incline the hearts of people to believe in the Father. With Jesus, it was all about the Father. Disciples? Jesus really wasn't interested in accumulating a following for himself, but rather said, “Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me.” The Lord wanted everyone who encountered him to know that they had not merely beheld him, but in fact had looked upon the Father who had sent him (John 12.45).

The fact of the matter was, and is, that the whole world, and everyone in it, was plunged into darkness back in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve took that first awful bite of the forbidden fruit. That's what sin does, it cuts the sinner off from the light, the light of God. Oh, we may walk around convinced we see perfectly fine, but, as we learned yesterday when we looked at John 12.36-43, sinners with even 20-20 vision can be quite blind to the light and the truth.

Mercifully, the Father was not about to permit the world to remain in darkness, but sent his light into the world, in the person of his Son (John 12.46; see John 1.9). So it was, and is, that all who believe in Jesus do not abide any longer in darkness, but come into the light which, sorry Walter, is not inaccessible. Rather than be hidden by the splendor of his light, the Father has shown himself to us in and through the glory of the Son, the very Light of the World.

Now, light that is hidden, say under a a basket, provides no illumination whatsoever for those in darkness. The Father certainly understood this, and in sending his Son he made sure that his light was revealed to the world. And all who believe in Jesus, who are no longer in darkness, have been called to share Jesus, the Light of the World, with the world (see Matthew 5.14-16). We are to reveal the Father's light to those who are still lost and in darkness, because that's what Jesus did.

S.D.G.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4